Woman, cousin gang raped for eating beef

September 12, 2016

The rape victims

A Muslim woman in Northern Haryana, India, has said she and her 14-year-old cousin were gang raped after she was accused of eating beef.
According to News X, the 20-year-old woman also claimed her uncle and aunt who were also residing with them were tied up and beaten to death by the molesters.
One of the victims, in the presence of activist, Shabnam Hashmi, said, “They asked if we eat beef. We said we don’t, but they insisted we do and that was why we were being punished”.
“We told this to the police but they are not doing anything.”

The Haryana police have arrested four men in their 30s from the village in connection with the incident.
They have been charged for rape, trespass and murder.
It is suspected that the rapists capitalised on the law prohibiting cow slaughter in Haryana which attracts a jail term of up to ten years and a fine.
Tensions are now said to be running high in Mewat, Haryana’s Muslim-dominated region ahead of Eid on Tuesday after a state university laboratory confirmed that 7 biryani samples picked up by the police did contain beef.
Muslim community leader, Ramzan Chaudhary, said people are shocked because such a horrific attack has never happened in Mewat before, the BBC had reported.
“We have never had any religious tensions here since independence. Hindus and Muslims have always lived in peace in this area. It’s possible that this incident was planned to create religious tensions in the area, Abid Khan, a member of the Mewat Bar Association, also said.”